Year OneOn our first night of ownership we tore out the nasty smoke and urine stained carpet (aka: floor protectors).

In the first month in our new house (March 2002) we added heat and quickly painted a bedroom.

Life might have continued on with me painting everything white had I not gone to a fantastic home tour in our neighborhood We quickly bought every book we could find on bungalows and took our first visit to the Gamble House.

That summer we taught summer school (booooo!) and we plastered and painted one more room. Plus we had our fir floors stripped of many layers of paint by some guys who rolled out of the back of a van, Cheech and Chong style.

Preparing the room for painting.

Fin

I also decided to cedar-line a closet and build an organizer using my first real tool (Dewalt 14.4 v Drill)Crazed look in eyes = woodworking bug takes over brain.

The HorrorOur home inspector warned us not to use the fireplace due to the illegal drywall box surrounding it.

The Spring of 2003 I decided to remove the mysterious box..What the?

Come Closer Clarice…

Closer still.

Someone had done something unspeakable to our fireplace. So that explains the 200 or so bricks I found burried in the back yard.

In the Can (Is that crass?)Meanwhile in the bathroom, the 70’s rocked on. Spanish tile and a huge “oak” cabinet.. plus gold framed mirror and round “makeup staition / yacht lights”.

Here is the bathroom after I got the bright idea of painting the oak cabinet white, the walls red, and switching out the light fixtures while Kristin was out of town. (Too much HGTV).

One of the saving graces of the house was the original clawfoot tub. Unfortunately it was so disgustingly dirty that I can only warn you … _Look away! (That was a clean day.)

The house was built in 1910. So we are trying to fix it up for its 100th b-day.

I have to back and add that to the first blog.

In my research I found out that it was owned by one family for most of that time 1915 or so till the earliest of the 1970’s when the mother passed away.

From then it was bought and turned into a rental house. The house fell into disrepair along with the neighborhood. It is my understanding that bussing in the schools had led to “voluntarily” segregated neighborhoods.

The neighborhood became a protected landmark district in the late 1980’s due to the hardwork of people who loved bungalow homes.

At one point before the landmark status, the garage was condemned and the owner was given notice to make the repairs before the city stepped in. Major code violations.

The next permanent owner was a professor at USC. who did some work stripping the dining room and added the oak cabinet in the bathroom.

The owner we bought from was a single Hollywood location scout… the house was almost in foreclosure.

For the first 5 years we worked on temporary contracts and had no job security so we had to save up during the school year to live during the summer and complete a few projects.

That first year we paid for a heating system, a major tree trimming, and the floors to be done. Everything else was sweat equity.

It has sucked away our cash, but property values have also risen

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne